Introduction

Abstract

The past few years in Europe have seen the beginnings of a quiet revolution in the way in which we view and use the telephone. The concept of a telephone permanently wired to a socket on the wall is being displaced by the concept of a lightweight pocketphone, with a telephone number allocated to a person rather than to an address. The explosive growth of cellular radio, the launch of Telepoint services and the imminent introduction of Personal Communications Networks (PCNs) illustrate the telecommunications industry’s initial responses to the latent consumer demand for mobile personal communications.